The term GS was purportedly coined when Jackey Yoshikawa and the Blue Comets were guests on Yuzo Kayama's TV show. Kayama started teasing Yoshikawa about his poor English pronunciation of "Lock 'n' Lorr."

Yoshikawa admitted that because of the two R's and two L's, "Rock 'n' Roll" is difficult for Japanese people to pronounce correctly. Yoshikawa then challenged Kayama to come up with an English term that Japanese people could easily pronounce.

Kayama thought for a moment and suggested, "Why not call "Rock 'n' Roll" the "Group Sounds?" Within days the media and fans all over Japan began using the new expression.

Group Sounds and Japanese Garage Bands!
By 1967, nearly 30 new bands with mod names like the Spiders, the Tempters, the Carnabeats, the Jaguars, and the Tigers made their record debuts. The top GS groups had enormous popularity in Japan with wild scenes of Beatlemania-like hysteria greeting them at concerts and following them wherever they went.

A quintessential GS song can be characterized by its slightly dissonant melodies and a tendency to go from a straight ahead pop or beat number to an over-the-top, fuzzed-out screaming psychedelic rave up—sometimes all within the same song!

Japanese Group Sounds in the Movies!
The Spiders, the Tigers and the Jaguars made teen-oriented feature films in the style of "Help!" and "Hold On!" Just like American and British teen-rock movies, they tend to have silly plots but also have very cool & rockin' music performances!